1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a lamp bulb holder and to a method of assembling a lamp bulb holder. The invention relates more specifically to the holders for baseless lamp bulbs.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For some applications, a lamp bulb is required to be connected to an electrical component, for example, a diode or a resistor. In one such application, where the lamp bulb has a coiled filament and is connected to a sensitive switching element, for example, a semiconductor chip, a diode is connected to the lamp bulb to protect the switching element from any back electromotive force that may be generated when the bulb is switched off, as a result of the decay of the magnetic flux about the filament. Such protection is needed, especially in coiled filament lamp bulbs that are continually switched on and off, for example, when the bulbs are installed as signal or indicator lamps in a gaming machine or automobile.
GB-A-2176663 discloses a lamp bulb holder comprising a housing and three electrical terminals which are inserted into respective cavities in the housing. Two of the terminals have slots for receiving respective leads of a solid state diode dropped onto a support in the housing before the insertion of the terminals. Two of the terminals also have spring contact beams which extend into a lamp bulb socket formed integrally with the housing, to engage respective contacts of the lamp bulb. Each of the three terminals has a pair of slots for receiving an external lead, the slots for receiving the external leads open towards a terminal receiving end of the housing but the slots for receiving the leads of the diode open in the opposite direction, that is to say towards the support upon which the diode is dropped. This known lamp bulb holder is clearly intended for manual assembly.
The present invention is intended to provide a lamp bulb holder and a method of assembling a lamp bulb holder, for automated assembly, by means of conventional terminal stitching machine.